Metallica members discuss history at San Fransisco Guitar Center

Singer and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, and drummer Lars Ulrich talk about their beginnings in music with their interviews as they visited the store.

Metallica opens SF Giants game with National Anthem

Last night (May 3), James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett of Metallica played the national anthem at AT&T Park before the start of the San Francisco Giants game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The video is embedded above.

The performance was part of Metallica Night. The guitars played by Hetfield and Hammett – black with the Giants’ logo painted on them – were later signed by the band and auctioned off by the team. The auction raised more than $15,000 for the Giants’ Community Fund and the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation.

In addition to the duo’s rendition, Lars Ulrich threw out the first pitch, and fans who purchased the ticket package for the game received a limited-edition Giants cap featuring Metallica’s logo.

Metallica’s connection to baseball is well known. Their classic ‘Enter Sandman’ has long been used as the entrance music for Mariano Rivera, the Hall of Fame-bound closer for the New York Yankees.

“It’s been great,” Hetfield told the team’s website. “I love the fact that we inspire some next level of performance, because that does it for us, too. We love playing it and it shows.”

Last week, veteran Giants lefty Barry Zito jam with the band at their headquarters in San Mateo, Calif. Watch the video below.

Whatever forces Metallica were able to summon with their music apparently worked. The Giants defeated their biggest rivals, 2-1, on a walk-off home run by Buster Posey, who also drove in the tying run in the sixth inning.

New Documentary Depicts Fan’s Quest to Meet Metallica’s Lars Ulrich

A new documentary titled ‘Mission to Lars’ centers on Tom Spicer, a learning disabled man who goes on a quest to meet his hero, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. Spicer has Fragile X Syndrome, which is a sort of autism, and is helped on his journey by his brother and sister.

Kate and William Spicer hit the road with their brother Tom, traveling from the UK to Los Angeles, Las Vegas and beyond.  “We had this fantasy of hitting the road with Tom and recreating some of the magic of our teenage years cruising around in £100 cars, eating Burger King and listening to heavy metal on the tape deck,” says Kate. “We thought it would be fun, bonding. We wanted to do something good for our brother. We were also sick of him endlessly asking.”

Kate is a journalist and William a filmmaker, so they have experience in the music industry, but still ran across numerous obstacles in trying to fulfill their brother’s dream. Mencap, the British charity who works with learning disabled individuals, were involved in the making of the film.

The movie’s website says ‘Mission to Lars’ tells the story of the confusing family dynamics around learning disability, and portrays Tom as a complex and likeable character, and not as someone one sees first as learning disabled and everything else second.

In addition to entertaining the audience and raising awareness, ‘Mission to Lars’ is also giving all the profits from the film to Mencap. In June, there will be theatrical screenings of the documentary, which will also be used as outreach opportunities. The soundtrack includes music from Bob Dylan, Devandra Banhart and Blur.

Lars Ulrich himself has seen the movie, and according to the Spicer family, he likes it. Sounds like an interesting documentary with a great message for a worthy cause. In addition to some British screenings, the filmmakers plan on taking ‘Mission To Lars’ on the road.